Out With A Bang!
by LeShyWolf
Summary: By chance, Katherine's fate has been set the day the Joker infiltrated the art museum the same date of her school trip. Follow her as she gets unwilling dragged on an reluctant journey of walking on eggshells. All while being spied on by a burning eerie gaze in the shadows. Rated T but contains swearing. Before Arkham Asylum. HIATUS


_**Bang!**_

I flinched in fear from the loud noise that I knew ended somebody's life and clenched my eyes shut as tightly as humanly possible, slamming my hands against my ears to block out the chaos and destruction going on around me. I hunched over, hiding my face in my knees as I brought them up to my chest, doing my best to zone everything out. Though it was pretty difficult with the screams and sobs coming from the teacher that had brought us students to the art museum for the trip.

A big lump was swallowed down through my throat and tears seeped into my eyes, filling them with water. I bit down on my lip to suppress a sob escaping my wobbling lips. My shoulders trembled as I silently cried in terror. My blurry vision was darted through the vent from my high hiding place as I watched the scene unfold below me helplessly. My toes curled in my shoes as I tried to keep as quiet as possible so I didn't give away my hiding spot.

The Joker and his clown clones had surrounded the place. The clown prince of crime just killed the main teacher that brought us out on the trip. Mr. Harris was a normal, simple man with a laid-back kind of personality. The fact that the Joker just killed one of the few teachers I could tolerate right in front of me made me feel sick to my stomach.

This was normally when the heroine acted, when he or she lunged up to stand up for everybody and protect them. But I was just a teenage kid, my phone was dead, I had no kickarse karate and I wasn't a badarse like Lara Croft. I was no superhero. I was a coward. Me hiding in the air vents selfishly without helping anybody else proved just that.

But what the hell could I have done?

"Let's wrap this up boys!" Joker slowly let a big creepy smile slide onto his ghostly white face, his damaged skin matching with his dry chapped and disgusting lips. He raked his white gloved hand over his hair, smirking. "I've got a _date _with batsy to get to!" He gave a little high pitched giggle mixed with a giant grin. "Hehehe. You _know_ how _moody_ he can get! Seriously, the guy has some _major _brooding issues!"

I nearly gasped when he grabbed a random crying woman suddenly, she screamed when he grasped her arm tightly as if he was fire and he had just burned her. He smiled darkly at her, looking like a perverted clown. Which he probably was. The woman cried and sobbed in fear, trying to pry her arm from his grasp. He pulled her in front of him and pressed her to his chest, shoving the gun to her temple as he stopped her from running away. The woman froze, eyes wide and petrified.

"Bats! You're early!" He laughed with a devilish grin. His voice suddenly turned dark and scary with a creepy purr tinged into his vocal cords. My breath caught when his gaze locked with mine. Murder, deep insanity and a sadistic glimmer all shined as bright as the sun in those dark, evil depths. I was frozen with horror that he'd caught me, but he turned away like he didn't know I was there. "What a _pleasant_ surprise."

"Let her go Joker."

My gaze snapped towards the dark shadow that moved in the corner of my eye outside my hiding place, next to the vent on the left there was an artistic gargoyle with small symbols carved into the bottom. My eyes shifted up and I literally forgot how to breathe for a second when I saw the dark knight's hunched over figure sitting on it. He was staring straight at me with a blank expression and his electrical white eyes from his mask switched back towards the Joker.

"Bad choice of words Bats!" He snorted in amusement, like every five seconds. He hung the woman over the edge of the railing and she screamed again, I winced and clasped my hands over my ears harder in an attempt to block her out. "Are you _really_ sure about that?" He purred deeply in his eerie voice. The woman clawing at his sleeve as she tried to hold on. "Think about it _very _carefully." He bared his teeth in his huge grin.

"N-no! _Please_! I'll-I'll do anything!" She sobbed. "I s-swear!"

"_Please_! Oh please Dark Knight! Save me!" Joker mimicked her, his voice a little higher and girly-like as he shaped his hand into a puppet to mock her and open and closed it like a mouth with each word. He rolled his eyes in slight annoyance. "Blah! Blah! Blah! Is it me? Or do you broads never shut your mouth?"

When I looked back at the Batman, I noticed that he was gone and did a double take before searching the room for him, but I only saw a shadow zooming around the room, my eyes couldn't keep up with the impossibly fast vigilant. He was like the angel of death, or a misjudged demon. Who knew, he probably wasn't even human. His grace and skill was awe-worthy. Eventually he had been spotted by the Joker and he went out of the room while throwing the afraid woman away from him laughing. The security system was obviously being worked by the remote he carried in his hand.

Gotham City.

Dumbest City with the most stupid security system's in the universe.

Who came up with that junk? A toddler?

Hugging my knees, I watched silently as Batman took down all the thugs with astonishing skill, he attacked them like a cobra. It was like some kind of violent dance. He punched one in the face while kicking one behind him in the nuts. He went down easily, then as he bashed out his elbow to a thug behind him in the nose at the same time he grabbed the thug's wrist from the left to stop him from punching him. Then he twisted it at a painful, awkward looking angle before taking them both down.

He was multi-tasking. Throwing a punch and a kick at the same time. Grabbing the crow bar somebody swung at him while kicking another thug. He was a god in combat while I probably would have been down in like five seconds. Probably not even that. My reflexes were fast, sure, but flawed and I wouldn't be able to dodge a crowbar or a metal pipe. Jeez.

Briefly I wondered where he learned how to fight like that before I sniffed, wiping my eyes. The fear was slowly fading, lingering, but I had hope sparking in my chest with the way the Batman was going at it. He was here. We were safe, right? According to the Gotham news (though I was sure there was a lot of bullshit in it) he had saved a lot of people. Granted, he wouldn't be there all the time (and I knew that he couldn't protect everybody, despite everyone feeling safe with him around. I was a kid, but I wasn't naive) but _damn_. The people he took down. He could be an inspiration for anybody.

"Thank you." The woman that was still silently crying gave her appreciation to Batman. Her voice was hoarse and husky from all the sobbing and screaming, but you could really hear the sincerity in it. She gave him a grateful glance as she sat down on the ground, hugging herself. The other hostages also shared their thankful comments.

"Stay here." He ordered sternly, voice strong and firm. I nearly scoffed, what a sweetheart. He really knew how to comfort somebody. Ah the wonders of sarcasm. Batman glanced up at me, locking his eyes with mine. I had a feeling he wasn't just talking to the woman, I suspected the demand was for me too.

He approached an air vent and pulled it, the screws falling out of their place as he did. He set the vent door aside and crawled in, leaving the room. Damn, I didn't want to make him angry. Getting on his bad side meant one thing: You were screwed.

Pun not intended.

With a heavy shaking and tired sigh I twisted around in the small space. The reason I went into the vent was because the sketch I had been drawing had been blown through the gaps in the vent door. I tried to reach it but it few away deeper into the vents. I had to borrow a screwdriver from the janitor's office to get into it. And before you asked, _no _I did not use skill and grace to bust into the room like a super spy. The door was wide open and the janitor was sleeping.

When I finally caught it, I heard an alarm and quickly turned around to see that thugs were filling in the museum. Hey, if you were scared and you didn't know any defense moves, what would you do? Go and hit them with your bag? Granted, my bag was filled and heavy (giving me an aching shoulder) but there was a _lot_ of thugs. And a bag verse's a gun?

Yeah...

You figure out the results.

Heavy casualties for my body.

So I hid.

I quietly and quickly crawled deeper into the vents, climbed up until I was in what I assumed (and was correct) was a safe place. Though I hoped the Joker didn't see me. That would be a nightmare if he did. In fact, I was going to get a night terror when I got home and slept. I wouldn't be able to sleep. I would either have to knock myself out or ask Batman to do it.

Though, I would much rather prefer the drugs.

Batman would probably kill me with his hard fists of fury.

Giggle. _Hard_.

I mentally smacked myself and my dirty brain.

Not. The. Time.

Shuffling forward instead of listening to the Bat, I kept trying to remember the way out, to no avail. I must have climbed in deep. So when my eyes caught a glimpse of light pouring in from one of the doors, I crawled towards them and cursed when I saw I was way too high to get down. Quickly, I went back down another route, seeing it going down. Twisting my body around so my feet were first, I went forward and grabbed the edge as I once again twisted my body around, dropping down.

The thud that my feet caused when they collided with the metal echoed and reverberated. I grunted with the force of my weight and pushed forward again. My knees making small noise's against the floor as I crawled towards another vent door. As I turned around a sharp corner, I gave a cry of surprise when my head connected with a hard wall and sat on my knees, rubbing the tender spot.

"I told you to wait."

That wasn't a wall...

Nerves slithered into my stomach and coiled uncomfortably. I looked up sheepishly at the dark knight, whose voice held a tinge of irritation. But I glared at him, despite the anxious nerves that fluttered around in the pit of my stomach. My stubborn glare wavered though when he stared back at me intently, like he was disappointed. Hell, he didn't seem a guy to cross, but who did he think he was? My father?

"I got impatient." I argued, scowling and averting my gaze away from his intense eyes. Damn. He won. "I-I just want to go home. Can you really blame me? It's not every day you see people..." I swallowed hard, not being able to say it. So I just settled for, "...the Joker...on a trip to the art museum."

Understanding flashed through his eyes, but only for a tiny second.

"Here." He took out something from his belt and held it out towards me, I flinched at first on an instinct before looking at it cautiously. It looked like a compass, but more... futuristic and more technology involved. Awesome. I eyed it before taking it, examining it as he explained what it did. "It will direct you the correct way to safety."

"He-hey!" I stuttered when he started to leave. I didn't want to be left alone, pointedly because of the thugs with the big guns and the clown prince of crime with the insane noggin. "W-wait! You can't just leave me defenseless!"

"All of Joker's thugs are taken out." He told me without turning around, but he stopped, his voice almost impatient. He pressed something on his arm, I heard a few electronic beeps. "I'll connect you to Oracle through the device. She can guide you out safely if you get uncertain. She's a friend, you can trust her."

"B-but-" I glanced apprehensively towards the device before looking at him.

"You'll be fine." He cut me off curtly before swishing around, his cape bellowing behind him. I hesitated, rubbing the back of my neck timidly.

"Thanks." I whispered. He paused and turned his head to the side slightly towards me, but then left without a word. I swallowed and looked at the device he had lent me. I tilted it in my hand as I studied the thing, confused as to how I would get it working.

"Hey," I jumped, fumbling with the small, circular machine in my nervous, trembling hands. I coughed uncomfortably, moving it near my mouth as I spoke into it uncertainly. "So I take it you're the one that wants to go home, have a nice cup of hot coco and forget everything that's happened?"

"U-uh, yeah." I hesitantly spoke into it.

"Don't worry, I'll help you get out of there in no time."

"I sure hope so." I mumbled worriedly to my new cyber friend.

"Alright, let's see..." I heard her mutter. "Go down and take a right. Then take another right. After you've done that take a le-"

"Could you, uh, maybe slow it down a little?" I asked exasperatedly, a little aggravated by the fact she spoke too quickly and expected me to follow straight away and keep up with the whole 'super spy' shit.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

And so my journey in the vents began.

"H-hey! How was the trip? What took you so long to get home?" My uncle slurred from the lounge, I rolled my eyes and sighed, throwing my backpack on the floor beside the flat entrance before walking into the kitchen. "Kid! Wha's up? I've been worried 'bout 'cha!"

"I'm fine Duncan!" I scowled, rolling my eyes as I searched the cabinets with a flat irritated line across my lips. I felt bitter and jumpy since the whole Joker thing. I didn't think I'd be able to look at a clown the same way. I even lost the sketch I had drown. I was real pissed off about that.

"Ya sure? Ya don't sound fine!"

"Just leave me alone will you!" I snapped in annoyance, swinging the cabinet shut loudly as I stomped towards my room and slamming my door like the stroppy teenage girl I felt a lot like at that moment. I sulked deeply with a heavy scowl, jumping up and flopping face down onto my bed.

I heard a crash from the living room, the clatter of glass. Meaning my uncle had passed out from trying to walk towards my room again. He was an alcoholic when he wasn't working, never having any time for me. I mostly lived on take out's or tried to learn how to cook. Sometimes it ended badly. Sometimes good. I was a quick learner, but I had nobody to teach me. Mum was dead, I didn't know my dad.

My painting suddenly fell off the wall and thudded onto the floor because of the couple next door bumpin' uglies. I grimaced into my pillow, blaring my music (ACDC) so I didn't have to listen to the moans of pleasure from the whore next door. Grabbing another pillow and shoving it onto my head, I tried to block out the sounds and the vibrations shaking through the wall because of the bed ramming into it.

I groaned, feeling depressed.

I hated my life.


End file.
